Chapter Two

The Invention Called Mirin — From Sweet Wine to Seasoning

第二章 — みりんという発明・甘い酒から調味料へ

Introduction — The Long Journey of a Single Liquid

In the previous chapter, we saw Hekinan's fermentation carried to Edo upon the "sea road." The most emblematic produce those ships carried was mirin.

Today, mirin is known as a seasoning of the kitchen. But trace its origins, and one comes upon an unexpected fact. Mirin was, in the beginning, a sweet wine to be drunk. A single liquid, over several hundred years, changed its form from "wine" to "seasoning" — and this long journey is the very essence of the invention called mirin. In this chapter we wish to trace it: from the oldest record left in documents, through the science of its making, to the turn from drinking to seasoning.

I. The Oldest Record — "Mirin-shu" at a Warring-States Tea Gathering

Mirin first appears in documents from the Warring States period into the Azuchi-Momoyama period.¹

In the Sōtan Diary, a record of tea gatherings compiled between 1586 and 1592 (Tenshō 14–20), a letter is recorded from the warlord Kuroda Josui to the Hakata merchant magnate Kamiya Sōtan, and in it appears the word mirin-shu (密林酒).¹ In the Komai Diary of 1593 (Bunroku 2), too, it is written mirin-chū (蜜淋酎), and thereafter it was written with various characters — 美醂酒, 蜜醂酒, and others.¹ The writing 味醂, still in use today, became settled only after the Meiji era.¹

The origin of mirin itself admits several accounts. Two are representative: the theory of Japanese origin, which holds that shōchū was added to aged wines such as nerizake and shirozake to keep them from spoiling; and the theory of Chinese transmission, which traces it to a sweet wine, miirin, brought from China.² In either case, what old books recorded as miirin-shu or birin-shu was a fine wine bearing a faint sweetness.²

Mirin, in other words, was at its starting point not a seasoning for cooking, but a "sweet and noble wine," fit for the tea gathering and for gifts.

II. The Science of the Invention — Sweetness Opened by Kōji

Mirin's sweetness owes nothing to sugar. It is the result of rice itself being changed into sweetness by the power of kōji. Here lies the core of this liquid as an "invention."

The ingredients of hon-mirin (true mirin) are glutinous rice, rice kōji, and shōchū (or alcohol).³ Steamed glutinous rice and rice kōji are combined, shōchū is added in the preparation, and over forty to sixty days the mixture is saccharified and matured, then pressed.³⁴ During this preparation, the enzymes of the rice kōji break down the starch and protein of the glutinous rice, giving rise to various sugars, amino acids, organic acids and aroma compounds — and these form the flavour particular to hon-mirin.⁴

What is striking here is that, in the brewing of mirin, alcoholic fermentation does not proceed. Because the alcohol concentration of the shōchū added in preparation is high, fermentation by yeast does not occur. In its place, only the "saccharification" by the enzymes of the kōji mould proceeds, steadily.⁵ Where sake is born of yeast fermentation, mirin is born of kōji saccharification — and this difference is the watershed that divides wine from seasoning.

The composition of the sugars produced is intricate as well. Seventy to eighty per cent of the sugars are glucose, with isomaltose and oligosaccharides besides, making up in all nine or more kinds of sugar.⁴ This varied composition of sugars gives mirin its particular "refined sweetness," unlike the monotonous sweetness of sugar.⁴ Among the aroma compounds is ethyl ferulate and others, broadly divided into those derived from the glutinous rice, those from the metabolism of the kōji, and those from non-enzymatic chemical reactions during maturation.⁴

Rice, kōji, and time. From these three alone, a sweetness and aroma of such complexity arise — mirin is one intricate attainment that the fermentation craft of Japan reached.

III. Mirin as a Wine to Drink — Edo Summers and "Yanagikage"

Mirin, its method once established, was through the Edo period first loved as "a wine to drink."

The best known of these is yanagikage. This is a drink of hon-mirin with shōchū added, called honnaoshi in Edo and yanagikage in Kamigata.⁶ The Morisada Mankō, a record of Edo-period manners, notes that mirin and shōchū, mixed in roughly equal parts, were drunk as a chilled wine.⁶ The name is said to come from savouring it as one takes the cool in the shade of a willow (yanagi), and in haiku it is even a seasonal word for summer.⁷

This was a wine for dispelling the summer heat, enjoyed chilled in the well, and treated as a fine article. The scene is depicted in "Aona" (Greens), a masterpiece of Kamigata rakugo — where a gardener, served by the master of a house, is moved by the taste.⁶ Mirin was also used as the base of toso, the spiced wine of the New Year.⁶

Sweet and easy on the palate, with an alcohol content to rival sake, mirin was a "wine of pleasure," beloved even by those weak with drink and by women.⁸ That what was beloved by the upper classes as a costly fine wine in time melted into the life of common folk too can be glimpsed from the senryū verses of the day.⁸

That Hekinan holds a brewery calling itself "the oldest mirin in Japan" is by virtue of standing in the very midst of this long tradition of "mirin to drink."

IV. From Wine to Seasoning — A Turning Point

How, then, did mirin, a wine to drink, become a seasoning of the kitchen? That turn came about through the entwining of two histories: the history of taste, and the history of taxation.

Mirin began to be used as a seasoning from the late Edo period. It came to be used in the sauce for eel and in noodle broth; in the Meiji era it spread into ordinary households; and with the development of the food-processing industry from Taishō into Shōwa, its consumption expanded.⁹ When mirin joined with soy sauce and miso and married with dashi, the very way of enjoying Japanese cuisine — sheen, lustre, aroma — was formed.²

And decisive was the movement of postwar taxation. Under the Liquor Tax Act, mirin is classed as a liquor and bears liquor tax (its alcohol content is 13.5 to 14.5 per cent; its manufacture and sale require a liquor licence).¹⁰¹¹ During the Second World War its manufacture was forbidden for want of materials, and though it resumed after the war, at first it bore a heavy liquor tax as a luxury.¹¹

The turning point came in 1962 (Shōwa 37). In that year, the liquor tax on hon-mirin was greatly lowered, from 140,000 yen to 67,700 yen per kilolitre.¹² Taking this as its impetus, from 1965 onward hon-mirin grew as a seasoning and came to be widely used in the home.¹² Born as a sweet wine for drinking, hon-mirin thus changed both its method and its components into a cooking wine that sustains Japanese cuisine.¹²

Taste sought the system of Japanese cuisine; taxation pressed its price downward. Mirin's turn "from wine to seasoning" was a story that culture and institution wrote together.

V. The "Genuine" — A Fork in the Road

Last, we wish to touch on one fork that mirin faces today. This throws into sharp relief the meaning of what the breweries of Hekinan keep.

What is called "mirin" today is broadly of three kinds. "Hon-mirin" (a liquor), made by saccharifying and maturing rice, rice kōji and shōchū. "Mirin-style seasoning" (a non-liquor, appearing after the war in 1947), made over a short period with an alcohol content under one per cent, with sugars such as starch syrup added. And "fermented seasoning (mirin type)," made undrinkable by the addition of salt.¹¹¹³ The latter two differ from hon-mirin in ingredients, method and components alike.¹¹

What the breweries of Hekinan go on making is, needless to say, "hon-mirin." It is the mirin of the oldest and most laborious method, raising sweetness from rice, kōji and time alone. One Hekinan brewery is said to have kept, ever since its founding in 1910, the principle of "one shō of rice, one shō of mirin" — making from one shō of rice only the amount of mirin that should rightly be.¹³ Where the law allows even mirin made up to five shō from one shō of rice to be called "hon-mirin," it goes on, deliberately, making only the dense and genuine.¹³

Born as a wine to drink, changed in form into a seasoning, and passing through the postwar wave of cheap substitutes without ever letting go of its first principle — rice, kōji and time: this is the hon-mirin of Hekinan. In the next chapter we wish to move our brush to the other invention Hekinan gave birth to alongside mirin, the brewing of "white" — white soy sauce.

Notes & Sources

This is the second chapter of the Chronicle of Hekinan (white paper). The facts stated rest on the sources cited. The several accounts of mirin's origin are made plain. The figures for method and components rest on materials of the National Hon-Mirin Council and the National Tax Agency. Specialist works such as Hideo Morita's Knowledge of Mirin (Kō Shobō) and Noriko Matsumoto's "A Historical Study of Mirin" (Nara Women's University) will be consulted and reflected as deeper corroboration in future revisions.

National Tax Agency, "The History of Hon-Mirin (Methods of Producing Hon-Mirin and Similar Seasonings)" (on mirin-shu (密林酒) in Kuroda Josui's letter in the Sōtan Diary of Tenshō 14–20; mirin-chū (蜜淋酎) in the Komai Diary of Bunroku 2; the various writings; and the settling of 味醂 in the Meiji era). https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/sake/koujikin/pdf/0021012-102_05.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
"The History of Mirin," Kakuya Bunjirō Shōten, Sanshū Mikawa Mirin (on the theories of Japanese origin and Chinese transmission, the old books' miirin-shu and birin-shu, the establishment of the method in the Edo period, and the forming of the foundation of Japanese cuisine). https://mikawamirin.jp/about/history ↩ ↩² ↩³
"Knowing Hon-Mirin — Kinds of Mirin," Kokonoe Mirin Co. (on glutinous rice, rice kōji and shōchū as ingredients, pressing and then storing-maturing for half a year to a year, an alcohol content around 14 degrees, and classification as a liquor under the Liquor Tax Act). https://kokonoe.co.jp/mirin04 ↩ ↩²
"Let Us Know Hon-Mirin," National Hon-Mirin Council (on 40–60 days of saccharification and maturation, the breakdown of starch and protein by the enzymes of rice kōji, 70–80% of the sugars being glucose with nine or more kinds of sugar, and aroma compounds such as ethyl ferulate). http://zenkokuhonmirin.com/study.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
"Mirin," ajiwai.com (on the mechanism whereby, the shōchū's alcohol concentration being high, alcoholic fermentation by yeast does not proceed and only the saccharification of the kōji mould advances). http://www.ajiwai.com/otoko/make/mirin.htm ↩
"Honnaoshi," Wikipedia (on the chilled wine of mirin and shōchū mixed half-and-half per the Morisada Mankō, the Kamigata "yanagikage" and Edo "honnaoshi," the Kamigata rakugo "Aona," and the base of toso). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/本直し ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Tomomi Seki, "Too Good for Seasoning Alone! A Sake Writer on the Charm of 'Hon-Mirin' and How to Enjoy Edo's Summer Wine 'Yanagikage,'" note (on how yanagikage is drunk, the origin of its name, and its being a seasonal word for summer). https://note.com/sekitomomi/n/nead2d020b523 ↩
"On the Origins and History of Hon-Mirin," Hon-Mirin Institute (source: Hideo Morita, Knowledge of Mirin, Kō Shobō, p. 30; on the drinking of mirin seen in Edo-period senryū, and its being a wine of pleasure for the abstemious and for women). https://honmirin.net/archives/368 ↩ ↩²
"On the Origins and History of Hon-Mirin," Hon-Mirin Institute (on the late-Edo use in eel sauce and noodle broth, the Meiji spread into households, and the expansion of consumption from Taishō into Shōwa). https://honmirin.net/archives/368 ↩
"Mirin," Wikipedia (on its classification as a blended liquor bearing liquor tax under the Liquor Tax Act, and the liquor licence required for manufacture and sale). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/みりん ↩
"Mirin," Wikipedia (on the alcohol content of hon-mirin, the wartime ban on manufacture and the heavy postwar liquor tax, and the components and non-liquor classification of mirin-style seasoning [1947] and fermented seasoning). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/みりん ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
National Tax Agency, "The History of Hon-Mirin" (on the 1962 reduction of liquor tax [from 140,000 to 67,700 yen per kilolitre], the growth as a seasoning from 1965 onward, and the change from a wine to drink to a cooking wine; after Yamashita 1992). https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/sake/koujikin/pdf/0021012-102_05.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³
"[Reduced Tax Rate] Why Mirin Is 10% While 'Mirin-Style Seasoning' Is 8' — Because It Is 'Loophole Mirin,'" Mark's Qualification Hack (on the three classifications, the Hekinan brewery's principle of "one shō of rice, one shō of mirin" [founded 1910], and the rule allowing up to five shō of mirin from one shō of rice to be called hon-mirin). https://shikaku-hack.hatenablog.com/entry/20191001tax_on_mirin ↩ ↩² ↩³